Pierce Brosnan might not have the strongest singing voice on either of the Mamma Mia movies – something he’s openly admitted himself – but he got a very painful reaction from Barbra Streisand’s dog after sitting down to watch him belting out ABBA songs for the first time.
Speaking to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, the 65-year-old actor recalled the moment he visited musician and actress Barbra’s house to watch a screening of the film, but ended up with an unexpected injury.
The pair are long-term friends and live close to each other, so it was the perfect opportunity to get Barbra’s musical take on the film.
“We thought we’d show it to Barbra. She wanted to see it, so we went over to her house and put the movie on,” Pierce told Jimmy on the show. “She said, ‘come sit beside me, darling’. I’m watching the movie thinking, ‘what am I doing showing this to Barbra Streisand’?”
He added: “The movie finished and she said, ‘that was absolutely wonderful, darling.’ I said, ‘thank you so much’ and at that point her dog, Sammie, bit my arm.
“She said, ‘oh Sammy, are you alright’?” He recalled. “I said, ‘but, Barbra – she just bit me’.”
While Barbra’s beloved dog passed away recently, she often shares tributes to her on social media most recently on what would have been her 15th birthday. Sharing a sweet photo of the pooch on Instagram, she wrote: “Thinking of Sammie today on what would have been her 15th birthday.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjDaaEqh-hT/?hl=en&taken-by=barbrastreisand
Meanwhile, Pierce was quizzed about his singing abilities on the show, and while he admitted he was terrified at the start, he got moral support from his co-stars Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard.
“The only thing that really comforted me was seeing Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård looking equally as terrified on the day that we did the recordings,” he joked.
It was Cher who blew him away though, as she appeared on the movie as Meryl Streep’s character Donna’s on-screen mum Ruby Sheridan. Pierce added: “If you’re unhappy going in to see this film, you’ll definitely come out happy. It’s so joyous, a very unique world of joy.”
It wasn’t just him who had some nerves before singing on screen, and Cher previously admitted she was “terrified” to join the cast for the first time.
Speaking during a press conference, she said: “I was terrified! Because everyone had been together and also my character wasn’t very liked, by anybody. I was really nervous but all was great, and you [Amanda Seyfried] were adorable.
“Everybody was so nice to me. And then Meryl was behind a piece of scenery watching me do my number so that made me feel good after the fact, because I didn’t know it.”